De novo biosynthesis of plant lignans by synthetic yeast consortia
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Co-cultivation of high-value microalgae species with filamentous microalgae for dairy wastewater treatment
The study examined the feasibility of co-culturing high-value microalgae sp. (Chlorella vulgaris (C.), and Scenedesmus (S.)) with filamentous microalgae sp. (Tribonema (T.) and Lyngbya (L.)) to remediate dairy wastewater (DW) and enhance biomass production and harvesting. The results showed that biomass productivity increased by 12‒174% compared to monocultures, and the best consortium was S:T. This consortium achieved the highest biomass productivity of 84.25 mg L−1 d−1 while removing 86.7% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), >88.7% of NO3−-N and >98.5% of PO43–-P. The study also tested the effect of harvesting time on the accumulation of biochemical components and found the optimal harvesting times of day 9 and day 11 to achieve maximum carbohydrate and lipid productivity, respectively. Additionally, the microalgae consortium S:T achieved a high biomass recovery of 78.5%, compared to 32.4% obtained for S. alone, highlighting its potential for efficient DW remediation and resource recovery.
Horizontal metaproteomics and CAZymes analysis of lignocellulolytic microbial consortia selectively enriched from cow rumen and termite gut
Selectively enriched microbial consortia are potentially useful for the
conversion of lignocellulose (LC) into biofuels and commodity chemicals. Consortia
are also of interest to elucidate the roles of individual microorganisms and the
dynamics of enzymes involved in LC deconstruction. Using metaproteomics, 16 S rRNA
gene amplicon sequencing and multivariate discriminant analysis, we revealed the
temporal dynamics of microbial species and their proteins during anaerobic
conversion of LC by microbial consortia derived from cow rumen (RWS) and termite gut
(TWS) microbiomes. Bacteroidetes (Bacteroidota), Firmicutes (Bacillota) and
Proteobacteria (Pseudomonadota) phyla were dominant, irrespective the inoculum
origin, displaying functional complementarities. We identified a large variety of
carbohydrate-active enzymes, distributed in 94 CAZy families, involved in biomass
deconstruction. Additionally, proteins involved in short chain fatty acids
biosynthesis were detected. Multivariate analysis clearly differentiates RWS and TWS
metaproteomes, with differences originating in the initial inoculates. Further
supervised discriminant analysis of the temporal succession of CAZymes revealed that
both consortia consume easily accessible oligosaccharides during the early stage of
incubation, degrading more complex hemicellulose and cellulose fractions at later
stages, an action that pursues throughout the incubation period. Our results provide
new insights regarding the functional roles and complementarities existing in
lignocellulolytic consortia and highlight their potential for biorefinery
applications.
Overview and recommendations for research on plants and microbes in regolith-based agriculture
The domestication of agriculture is widely recognized as one of the most crucial technological adaptations for the transition of humanity from hunter-and-gatherer groups into early city-states and ultimately, complex civilizations. As humankind sets forth to permanently establish itself on the Moon and use it as a testing ground to colonize other worlds, like Mars, agriculture will again play a pivotal role. In this case, the development of sustainable crop production systems capable of succeeding in these harsh environments becomes vital to the success of our star-faring journey. Over decades, studies varying in species and approaches have been conducted in microgravity, testing the limits of plants and various growth systems, to better understand how Earth-based agriculture could be translated into environmental conditions and therefore evolutionary pressures beyond what life on our planet has known. While we have passed several significant milestones, we are still far from the goal of a sustainable agricultural system beyond our planet Regolith-based agriculture (RBA) should be a component of sustainable agriculture solutions beyond Earth, one which can also provide insight into plant growth in poor soils across our own world. However, RBA studies are in their infancy and, like any other new field, need an established set of parameters to be followed by the RBA community so the generated data can be standardized and validated. Here, we provide an extensive multi-disciplinary review of the state of RBA, outline important knowledge gaps, and propose a set of standardized methods and benchmarks for regolith simulant development and selection as well as plant, microbe, and plant-microbe interaction studies conducted in lunar and Martian regolith. Our goal is to spur dialog within the RBA community on proper regolith simulant selection, experimental design, and reporting. Our methods are divided into complexity tiers, providing a clear path for even the simplest experiments to contribute to the bulk of the knowledge that will shape the future of RBA science and see it mature as an integrated part of sustainable off-world agriculture.
Open problems in synthetic multicellularity
Multicellularity is one of the major evolutionary transitions, and its rise provided the ingredients for the emergence of a biosphere inhabited by complex organisms. Over the last decades, the potential for bioengineering multicellular systems has been instrumental in interrogating nature and exploring novel paths to regeneration, disease, cognition, and behaviour. Here, we provide a list of open problems that encapsulate many of the ongoing and future challenges in the field and suggest conceptual approaches that may facilitate progress.
The transcriptomic architecture of common cancers reflects synthetic lethal interactions
To maintain cell fitness, deleterious genetic alterations are buffered by compensatory changes in additional genes. In cancer, buffering processes could be targeted by synthetic lethality. However, despite the large-scale identification of synthetic lethal effects in preclinical models, evidence that these operate clinically is limited. This impedes the application of synthetic lethal approaches. By integrating molecular profiling data from >9,000 cancers with synthetic lethal screens, we show that transcriptomic buffering of tumor suppressor gene (TSG) loss by hyperexpression of synthetic lethal partners is a common phenomenon, extending to multiple TSGs and histotypes. Transcriptomic buffering is also notable in cancers that phenocopy TSG loss, such as BRCAness cancers, where expression of BRCA1/2 synthetic lethal genes correlates with clinical outcome. Synthetic lethal genes that exhibit transcriptomic buffering also represent more robust synthetic lethal effects. These observations have implications for understanding how tumor cells tolerate TSG loss, in part explain transcriptomic architectures in cancer and provide insight into target selection.
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